Piotr and his wife visit some friends at a country cabin by a lake. Actually they aren't that good friends with Micael who's there with one of his girls. Right from the get go Piotr runs into them having sex and subsequently bumps his head. From that point on he starts having visions, dreams, fantasies of being or seeing things underwater. He is a beta male, a quiet writer. Micael is an alpha male who uses and disposes of girls as he pleases. His current one, Ania, is a sweet young thing, who unfortunately films a bunch of stuff in green nightvision. The sexual tension between Piotr and Ania is instant, the aggressive testosterone tension between the two guys takes time to develop. There is a history between the married couple and Micael and later on we learn what happened between these three that causes some resentment on the part of Micael who does enjoy giving Piotr a hard time.
While Piotr gets ensnared in the sexiness, beauty, and aliveness of Ania he also starts getting suspicious of his wife and for good reason, knowing how Micael is. But ever the good guy he rejects his chance to sleep with Ania. At a party he gets wasted, dances with Ania, worries when he sees Micael flirting with his wife, sees Micael doing it with some other girl, and he takes a surprising decision which I won't reveal. There are a couple of things that happen afterward which could lead you to question some events.
I saw the short version, which is infuriating. What is this nonsense of having a shorter and longer version. So who knows what the additional 10 minutes include.
In any case, The Underneath is a nice movie, quieter, very stylish, slower. The adorable Magdalena Boczarska and Beata Kozikowska make it work though. But even in the short version once the story turns uglier and more aggressive, you also get somewhat tired and bored. There's a remarkable attention to detail in how Ania behaves, her sexy subtle seductive gestures, which would be irresistible to any man, not to mention her attractive body.
